“I’m so sorry, Alfred,” I said before following the others. Even if Alfred had been a horrible boss, I felt sorry for what they had done to him.
Could it really be true that I belonged with them? That I was destined to go to this Academy? I had never killed someone; I couldn’t even hurt a fly. Seeing animals in pain broke my heart, and when my pet goldfish died, I had bawled my eyes out. Was I really capable of being evil?
I contemplated this while the six of us left Joe’s Diner. When Tristan, the last one of us to leave the diner, closed the door behind us, I had the uncanny feeling this would be the last time I ever set foot inside the place.
Seconds later, as we passed by the window, Alfred’s corpse collapsed on the floor, a woman screamed, a man yelled for someone to call 911 and I realized that unfortunately, none of this was a dream—it was a nightmare turned reality.
Chapter Six
The Testing Huse loomed at the end of the row of townhouses, barely three blocks away from my house. It was completely surrounded by fences decorated with signs saying, “keep out” and “not safe”.
Christian pushed aside one of the fences and we all entered the premises, disregarding the “forbidden to enter” sign. On the grand list of crimes committed by the students of the Academy, this probably didn’t even rank top-10, but for me it was the first time I’d even committed a minor offense—not counting the one time Cassie and I had stolen a liquor bottle from my mother’s cabinet while we were still underage.
“So, uhm, once we’re inside… What do I need to do?” I asked, feeling nervous.
“You find your way to the last room in the Testing House. It’s pretty straightforward,” Alec explained. “The house will test your strengths and weaknesses and deem you worthy for entering the Academy.”
“Or not,” Damian said.
“Ignore Mr. Doom and Gloom.” Alec smiled at me, flashing his white teeth fit for a toothpaste commercial. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. For someone completely new to all this, you’re handling things pretty well.”
We climbed over patches of grass and bushes of the unkept front garden while trying to make it to the Testing House. From up close, I could make out some of the details. It was a Victorian townhouse that looked like it had been abandoned for over a century. The windows were smashed and then boarded up; broken glass was laying all around. The front door looked relatively sturdy, but the rest of the red brick construction appeared like it could come crashing down any moment.
I always hated haunted houses on fairs; they were my least favorite attraction. Walking into an actual abandoned, potentially terrifying house which was designed as a “test” for me to be able to enter an academy of evil, was ten times as horrifying as that.
“We’ll all enter the front room,” Alec said, “because standing out here, we would draw too much attention to ourselves. But once you’ve crossed the first door inside the house, yo’ure on your own. Then, it’s all up to you.”
“Can you drop some hints about this ‘test’? Is it like math?” I secretly hoped it was; math, languages, that I could cope with. Anything even remotely to do with things that go bump in the night, not so much.
Christian threw his head back and laughed out loud. “Is it like math? By Satan, you’re hilarious. No, love, it’s nothing like math. Nothing at all.”
I gulped, trying hard to keep my cool, but I was terrified.
Tristan took the lead crossing the rest of the frontyard. He reached the house first and conjured up a key from his pocket.
My heart beat so fast I was afraid it would jump out of my chest any second. You can do this, Dev, I told myself, but even my inner voice didn’t sound very convinced. You can do this.
Tristan put the key in the lock, but before he could even turn it, the door opened from the other side, revealing a guy potentially even more gorgeous than all of the others.
Was it a requirement to look exceptionally stunning before being accepted into the Academy, at least if you were a guy? Or were extraordinarily good looks just one of the perks of being wicked?
This new guy had red, spiked hair that made him look like a fantasy character from one of those computer games my cousin liked to play, Final Fantasy or whatever it was called. He had piercing green eyes, a Romanesque nose, and full lips that looked like they were created simply for the purpose of kissing them.
I blinked, trying to keep these thoughts from flashing in my mind. I had to focus on the test, on making it out of this house alive, and not waste my time thinking about kissing…
“You’re late,” the man said, interrupting my daydream. “I’ve been waiting for ages.”
Chapter Seven
The others knew him, of course.
“Ronan,” Christian barked by way of greeting, before he shoved the man out of the way and entered the house. “You couldn’t be bothered to show up at the spot we’d agreed to meet?”
While they talked, I followed Christian inside the house and took in my surroundings. The front room was old-fashioned, the floor covered in stained carpet, cobwebs lining up against the walls. By all appearances, it looked like no one had been in here in years. At the end of the room was a single wooden door engraved with numerous symbols.
Ronan ignored Christian’s comment and instead focused on me. His smile had all the charm of a tiger ready to pounce its prey, and his eyes sparkled with mischievous delight. “Miss Devina.”
Before I could stop him, he
